Improving visibility by setting required fields to bold and red
Microsoft Dynamics GP provides an option for each user to identify required fields on any form. By activating this setting, users can get an obvious visual cue indicating the minimum required fields on any form. This recipe shows how to turn Required Fields bold red and what the end result looks like.
Getting ready
Prior to changing the appearance of required fields, the feature Show Required Fields needs to be turned on. To activate this feature:
- Select Help (the white question mark on a blue background in the upper-right corner) from the main Home page of Dynamics GP.
- Ensure that Show Required Fields has a check mark next to it. If it does not, click on the Show Required Fields item to turn this option on.
How to do it...
To improve visibility of required fields, follow these steps:
- The shortcut bar is the vertical bar on the top-left side of the screen when the Home button is selected on the left. From the shortcut bar, click on User Preferences then click on the Display button to open the User Display Preferences window; if you don't have User Preferences on the shortcut bar, click on the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu and then click on User Preferences.
- On the bottom-right side, under the heading Required Fields, set the Font Color field to Red and Font Style to Bold.
- Click on OK to accept the changes and close the window, then click on OK to close User Preferences. Now any windows that allow data entry will show their required fields in bold red, as shown in the following screenshot:
How it works...
Dynamics GP contains identifiers behind the scenes to mark fields as required. Dynamics GP uses these identifiers to change the color of the field name. Highlighting required fields provides a quick visual cue to ensure that at least the minimum amount of data is entered prior to saving a form. This will save hours of time by preventing annoying messages indicating that required fields have not been completed, especially since there is no indicator as to what field is missing.
There's more...
By default, activating Show Required Fields simply sets required fields to black and regular. That is, it doesn't distinguish them at all. This is important because if Show Required Fields is off completely, Dynamics GP 2013 will prompt users to turn it on but it won't appear to have any effect.
There are some areas in Dynamics GP where required fields are not marked in red and bold despite this feature being properly applied. In almost all cases, these required fields occur in the grid section of a transaction entry form. This area of a form has a heading at the top and a grid that allows multiple entries under one heading. The nature of the programming behind the grid format prevents Dynamics GP from properly highlighting these fields and, unfortunately, there is way to force a field inside the grid to reflect the Show Required Fields setting.
When a user receives a warning that a required field is missing but all required fields appear to be correctly filled in, they should examine the fields in the grid for missing information. The most common culprits are Unit of Measure (U of M) and Site ID fields.
Modifier with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
With the available Modifier with VBA utility for Dynamics GP, an administrator or developer can make additional fields required, and in most cases Dynamics GP will properly apply the red and bold formatting automatically. More information on Modifier with VBA is available from the manuals in Dynamics GP or from an authorized Microsoft Dynamics partner.